Adam Scott says long putters aren't the problem

By john.holmes

Created 6 Nov 2012 - 6:52pm

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Before long, it seems, every player who uses a long putter will have come out against the proposed rule change to banish them. The latest to speak up is Adam Scott, who said on Tuesday that he spoke with European Tour Chief Executive George O'Grady last week to stress his opinion that a ban on the long putter he has used since 2011 would be unfair.

Adam Scott thinks golf's governing bodies should leave long putters alone and concentrate their energy more on dealing with the ever-expanding distances that modern clubs can hit the ball.

Before long, it seems, every player who uses a long putter will have come out against the proposed rule change to banish them. The latest to speak up is Adam Scott, who said on Tuesday that he spoke with European Tour Chief Executive George O'Grady last week to stress his opinion that a ban on the long putter he has used since 2011 would be unfair.

"It is very hard to find a good reason to do that (get rid of long putters) at this stage, so my conversation was to find out where things sit because it is very hard to get information," Scott told Reuters at the Barclays Singapore Open[2]. "My opinion would be I don't think it is in the best interests of the game to ban the long putter. I think there are some more important issues that probably should have time spent on them than putting."

Scott went out of his way to shoot down a suggestion from Tiger Woods that the putter should be the shortest club in a player’s bag.

"His voice carries some weight on the issue -- a lot of players have been quite outspoken about it and certainly when Tiger Woods speaks about it generates a lot of interest," said Scott. "But I'm not necessarily sure his views on what the putter should be are correct at all. I don't think the putter should be the shortest club in the bag -- that has never been a rule in golf so I don't know why it should be now."

Instead of worrying about putters, Scott would prefer to see golf’s governing bodies focus more on reining in the distance that contemporary clubs are capable of hitting the ball.

"I think that it is fairly well acknowledged that length generally is probably the biggest issue in the game and it doesn't just mean how far pros hit it,” Scott told Reuters. "Some of our courses, great courses, are too short these days.

"If we are talking about equipment side of things, the length issue is probably the most important because tees are moved back," he added. "Greens are not changed because people are putting with a long putter."